Mark Karpeles, originally from France and once CEO of the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange based in Japan, sounded pessimistic about cryptocurrencies in general.
“The technology is definitely here to stay, but Bitcoin may have trouble evolving and keeping up,” he said Wednesday in a chat on the online message board Reddit. “I could be wrong about this. I’ve been wrong about a lot of things.”
Karpeles says he doesn’t own any Bitcoin. He also called Bitcoin’s main cryptocurrency rival, Ethereum, “too untested” for any kind of serious use.
The company he worked for, Mt. Gox, filed for bankruptcy in 2014 after thousands of Bitcoins belonging to customers were found to be missing. Karpeles was arrested by Japanese police in 2015 and spent time in jail.
Karpeles also remains on trial in Tokyo, accused of stealing money for personal use and making false deposits into the firm’s account. He has pleaded not guilty.
